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BEAUMONT, Texas – The Huskies never trailed as they pulled away late to beat Lamar 75-68 at the Montagne Center on Saturday afternoon and assure themselves of a bid to the 2017 Southland Conference tournament and extended their winning streak to seven games.
 
HBU (15-12, 10-6 SLC) got out to an early lead with Asa Cantwell knocking down a three on HBU's first possession and Colter Lasher making a layup off an offensive rebound to take a 5-0 lead into the first media stoppage of the game. HBU held Lamar (16-13, 8-8 SLC) without a field goal for six minutes and 36 seconds to start the game. The Cardinals were able to close the gap, cutting the HBU lead to one with the score at 9-8 before a layup from Atif Russell and a three by Jalon Gates put the Huskies ahead 14-8.
 
Another Russell bucket with 9:56 left in the half gave the Huskies a 16-8 lead. The rest of the half, HBU maintained a lead of between five and eight points, taking a 34-29 lead into the locker room at the half. Russell and Lamar's Nick Garth both led their teams with 10 points off the bench in the period.
 
After sitting most of the first half in foul trouble, Josh Ibarra was a focus for the Husky offense to start the second half. Ibarra made three of the first four buckets for the Huskies in the first two minutes, pushing the lead to 42-32 with 18:12 on the clock.
 
Lamar worked its way to within four after pair of Garth free throws but HBU answered with a three-point play by Russell and a Cody Stetler layup made it 58-49. The Cardinals responded with a couple of defensive stops and layups by Colton Weisbrod and Torey Noel to bring it to 60-56. On the next two Lamar possessions, two free throws and a layup from Weisbrod evened the score at 60-60.
 
Timely offensive rebounding and defensive stops proved to be the difference the rest of the way for the Huskies with Reveal Chukwujekwu putting HBU ahead 66-62 after a three-point play, getting fouled while making a put-back and knocking down his free throw. The next points for HBU came on a put-back by Ibarra for a 68-62 lead with just 2:25 remaining. A Garth layup got Lamar as close as four but HBU put the game out of reach after a pair of Braxton Bonds layups put HBU ahead by eight with less than a minutes remaining.
 
Russell matched his season-high with 18 points, connecting on 7-of-8 from the floor, and pulled down five rebounds in 25 minutes off the bench. Ibarra, after playing just four minutes in the first half with zero points, came out with 16 points in the second period thanks to 7-of-10 shooting and finished the game with eight rebounds and a pair of blocks.
 
Colter Lasher added 12 points, five rebounds and four assists for HBU while Bonds ended the game with 10 points, seven boards and three assists. As a team, the Huskies shot 49.1 percent (27-of-55) from the floor while the Cardinals connected on 38.5 percent (20-of-52) of their shots.
 
HBU held Lamar in check on the boards, holding a 41-28 advantage for the game and held the Cardinals to just 10 rebounds in the second half.
 
Weisbrod led all players with 24 points, shooting 7-of-13 for the game and hitting 10-of-14 at the charity stripe while Garth added 23 off the bench, shooting 4-of-9 from beyond the arc.
 
Last season, HBU went into the Southland tournament having lost eight of the last 10 games of the regular season after opening conference play 8-0. This season, the Huskies have won seven straight and eight of their last nine with just two games to go before the tournament.
 
HBU will host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Wednesday, March 1, at Sharp Gym with tip-off set for 7:00 p.m.